


A Person Before Anything Else

by DeerstalkerDeathFrisbee



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aromantic/Asexual Ty Lee, Asexual Character, Asexuality Spectrum, Canon Compliant, Canon-Era, Demisexual Zuko, Demisexuality, Ember Island (Avatar), Gen, Maiko mentioned, Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:29:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27220501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeerstalkerDeathFrisbee/pseuds/DeerstalkerDeathFrisbee
Summary: Zuko clears his throat awkwardly, “I’m nice to you because I don’t want you to be sad. I like you…you know…not being that.”“Hmm,” Ty Lee hums, “I don’t think the boys at the party were thinking like that, though, were they?”“What do you mean?” Zuko asks, “What boys? Do I need to fight some boys?”Ty Lee laughs again, but her voice is a little wobbly this time. “You’re sweet.”“No, I’m not,” Zuko grumbles.
Comments: 15
Kudos: 179





	A Person Before Anything Else

**Author's Note:**

> HAPPY ASEXUALITY AWARENESS WEEK 2020
> 
> I am celebrating by introducing the world to my aro/ace Ty Lee headcanon! And my demi Zuko headcanon! Rewatching the Ember Island episode as an adult, I was struck by how Ty Lee getting overwhelmed and confused by the boys' demanding she 'pick a favorite' felt very familiar. Maybe to Ty Lee, she wasn't flirting, she really was just being friendly and these boys took it a completely different way (which happens a lot when you're a social, friendly ace. It happens to a friend of mine sometimes. I, being a socially awkward, anti-social ace, wouldn't know). 
> 
> And demi!Zuko lives rent-free in my head because that boy never canonically shows any interest in anyone he doesn't already have a strong relationship with. While we see Sokka crushing on a girl he's never talked to, Katara charmed by Jet's swagger and confidence, and Iroh flirting with June, but we don't see Zuko experiencing crush-at-first-sight. His relationship with Mai, though strained at times, is built on a foundation of a pre-existing friendship-relationship. 
> 
> General Housekeeping note: these characters' experiences of the asexuality spectrum are not indicative of everyone's experiences. I am ace myself, but I cannot speak for all aces.

**A Person Before Anything Else**

**Zuko**

After the bonfire, after all the tears and yelling and revelations, after they wreck a party, after Azula and Mai have gone to bed, Zuko goes to find Ty Lee.

She’s standing on the beach, ankle-deep in the surf, staring out at the horizon, where the moon is painting the ocean silver. The night is warm, humid, even, but her arms are wrapped around herself as if she’s chilled. She’s taken out her signature braid and her hair falls loose around her, twisting and curling in the breeze.

“Why are you nice to me, Zuko?” she asks without turning around.

“I’m not,” he blurts out without thinking, and instantly regrets it.

But Ty Lee only laughs. “Yes, you are, silly. You try to be, at least.”

“Well. Um.” Zuko hasn’t ever really thought about his relationship with Ty Lee. She’s always just been kind of there, like a second sister. Or, more accurately, an extension of Azula. Like an arm or a foot or a particularly beloved pinky toe. “You’re my friend?” he finally offers, lamely. “I mean, I kind of hate how happy you are sometimes. Because everything sucks, and it sort of pisses me off that you’re still all smiley. But mostly I’m kind of glad you’re so happy. Cause it means maybe we can be happy too, even though everything is terrible.”

Ty Lee laughs again. “You’re funny, Zuko.”

“So,” Zuko clears his throat awkwardly, “I’m nice to you because I don’t want you to be sad. I like you…you know…not being that.”

“Hmm,” Ty Lee hums, “I don’t think the boys at the party were thinking like that, though, were they?”

“What do you mean?” Zuko asks, “What boys? Do I need to fight some boys?”

Ty Lee laughs again, but her voice is a little wobbly this time. “You’re sweet.”

“No, I’m not,” Zuko grumbles.

“Hmm,” Ty Lee rocks back and forth on her toes. She’s still watching the ocean. “Why do you think those boys at the beach were paying attention to me? Why were they being nice to me?”

“Because you’re a pretty girl who smiles a lot and if they’re close enough, they can stare at your chest and think about you kissing them or something.”

Ty Lee’s shoulders sag. “Yeah, I figured. I never think about that when I meet people. I just think I’m making new friends, meeting new and interesting people. They always want something from me instead.”

“Well, people should be less fucking creepy,” Zuko declares.

“They should, shouldn’t they?” Ty Lee agrees, surprisingly vehemently. She kicks at a wavelet with one foot. “I don’t think about people like that.”

“You aren’t nice to boys just so you can stare at their…chests?” Zuko’s voice peters off at the end of the sentence as he realizes how horribly awkward, he sounds. His face is burning. He’s glad it’s the middle of the night and the only other person awake isn’t looking at him.

“Nope, girls neither,” Ty Lee says, sounding a little sad. “Sometimes I wish I did.”

“Why?” Zuko blurts before he thinks it through (story of his life, really) “I mean…it seems really lame. Staring at chests. Um.”

Ty Lee snickers, “Well, what do you like about Mai?”

“Not her chest!” Zuko squawks, “I mean, it’s a nice chest, everything about her is nice, she’s very pretty and awesome, and…I just…um. I like her for her personality? And her knives. She’s really good at knives. We have shared interests…and stuff…” He sighs and drops his face into his hands. He’s an idiot. A grade-A idiot. 

Ty Lee actually turns to look at him, “That’s so _cute_ ,” she beams.

Zuko scowls at her, “Is it?”

“Yep,” Ty Lee pops the ‘p’ sound, turning back to the moon, head tilted to the side. “But I guess what I mean, is, I wish I could look at someone and go ‘wow, they’re so incredibly good-looking, I’ve got to kiss their face right now!’”

“A _stranger_?” Zuko blurts, “People think that about _strangers_?” the very idea horrifies him. It just seems so…invasive. And weird. Really weird. Who just looks at a person and goes ‘yeah, we should swap spit and touch each other’?

Ty Lee whirls around to beam at him again. This time she actually claps her hands together and jumps a little. “See! You get it!”

“Do I?” Zuko asks, feeling very much like he doesn’t get it.

“Girls at school were always talking about boys and how they were cute or not-cute and who they wanted to be their first kiss…and I didn’t get it _at all._ But I was _so jealous_ because they all seemed to be in on some secret that I didn’t know. It made me feel left out, to be honest.” Her shoulders briefly droop, but she brightens a moment later, “But I knew it was okay, even if I didn’t get it, because I always had Azula and Mai on my side, and Azula always said knowing a _princess’_ secrets was way better than knowing _regular_ secrets. But I don’t know…people who date just seem so happy. All the kissing and cuddling and stuff. But when I think about doing it, I just want to crawl out of my skin… And then I try to make new friends and there’s all these boys being nice to me…and then they start fighting over me like I’m a toy, not a person because really, they just want to do all those skin-crawling things with _me_. They don’t actually want to know me at all.”

“Well…getting to know somebody is part of dating them,” Zuko offers, “I think?” He already knew Mai before he dated her. He doesn’t think he’d want to just jump to the kissing without getting to know someone first, but who knows. “It’s not just that other stuff.”

Ty Lee shakes her head, “You don’t get it. I don’t want to do _any_ of that! I don’t want to date, I don’t want to kiss, I don’t like looking at people like that, I don’t like being looked at like that, I just want to meet new people, and learn their stories and be _friends_! I want to wear a comfy bathing suit to the _beach_ and _hang out_ without everyone staring down my top! And I hate how I’m always, _always_ surprised when it turns out all they wanted to do was stare down my top instead of actually get to know me!”

She sniffles and scrubs at her eyes. “It’s so lonely, Zuko. It’s lonely being different from everybody else. I know I said I didn’t want to be part of a matched set, but this is different.”

“Yeah, it is,” Zuko says. He can’t think of anything else to say. “Um. Do you want a hug?” His mom always hugged him when he was upset. It always made him feel better. “I, uh, promise it’s because I like you like a friend and not because of your top or…what’s in your top?”

Ty Lee snorts an ugly I’ve-been-crying snort. “Yeah, yeah I’d like that, Zuko.”

“Should I come to you, then, or…” Zuko doesn’t really want to walk into the ocean. With the number of times the ocean’s tried to kill him, he’d be perfectly happy to stay on dry land for the next hundred years. But for a sniffly, snotty, sad Ty Lee, he’ll brave the sea. Or at least a very little part of it.

Ty Lee puts him out of his misery by splashing back up the shore and throwing her arms around his middle. He awkwardly loops his arms around her shoulders, wondering when was the last time he hugged Azula like this.

Probably when she was too young to talk in complete sentences, if he’s honest.

Ty Lee gives his ribs a bone-creaking squeeze. “You’re a good friend, Zuzu.”

“You’re a good person, Ty Lee,” Zuko offers.

“Thanks,” she mumbles. “It’s nice not to be lonely.”

“Yeah,” Zuko agrees, “Yeah, it is.”

**Author's Note:**

> Fic title from a quote by the visual artist Edward Gorey, who was asexual. (Check out his art sometime, it's delightfully surreal)


End file.
